title: Biased processing of sad faces: an ERP marker candidate for depression susceptibility.
abstract: Depression has been associated with task-relevant increased attention toward negative information, reduced attention toward positive information, or reduced inhibition of task-irrelevant negative information. This study employed behavioural and psychophysiological measures (event-related potentials; ERP) to examine whether groups with risk factors for depression (past depression, current dysphoria) would show attentional biases or inhibitory deficits related to viewing facial expressions. In oddball task blocks, young adult participants responded to an infrequently presented target emotion (e.g., sad) and inhibited responses to an infrequently presented distracter emotion (e.g., happy) in the context of frequently presented neutral stimuli. Previous depression was uniquely associated with greater P3 ERP amplitude following sad targets, reflecting a selective attention bias. Also, dysphoric individuals less effectively inhibited responses to sad distracters than non-dysphoric individuals according to behavioural data, but not psychophysiological data. Results suggest that depression risk may be most reliably characterised by increased attention toward others' depressive facial emotion.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Clinical, Health, and Applied Sciences , University of Houston-Clear Lake , Houston , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Steven L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Bistricky
authors.forename: Ruth Ann
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Atchley
authors.forename: Rick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ingram
authors.forename: Aminda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: O'Hare
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D003863:Depression / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300 / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult